Mimeograph



March 25, 1941. F. ERIKSON MIMEOGRAPH Filed Feb. 24,` 1940 v lNvN-ron'red rz/Zson/ RNEY Patented Mar. 25, 1941 MIMEOGRAPH Fred Erikson,Brooklyn, N. Y., assignor of one-half to Albert Lakofsky, New York, N.Y.

Application February 24, 1940, Serial No. 320,551

3 Claims. (Cl. 101-116) This invention relates to mirneographs orsimilar reproducing or printing devices, and particularly to that typein Which a stencil-carrying roller is employed.

5 In mimeograph machines of the rotary type, the roller upon which thestencil is mounted is usually journalled in fixed supports and the sheetto be imprinted is fed beneath the roller which is rotated by means of ahandle in the form of 10 a crank or by similar manually operated means.

In a structure of such type, the roller is of relatively large diameter;its supporting frame, bed plate, crank and other elements are large andweighty and the vdevice as a Whole is expensive.

15' The primary object of the present invention is to provide a small,compact and portable type of mimeograph particularly adapted for use inprinting upon post cards, notices, or other relatively small sheets;Which will be operated by a 2O supporting handle or yoke in which theroller is mounted, and by which the roller is rotated While held infrictional contact with the article to be printed.

Another object of the invention is to provide,

25 in a small, portable mimeograph device of the character described,means by which the roller, moving from an initial position or point ofbeginning, will, .by a single stroke across a sheet of paper or a postcard, imprint thereon the indicia 30 borne by the stencil that iscarried by the roller. The invention also contemplates the provision of-means by Which lthe roller is automatically restored to its initialposition before the beginning of the stroke when it is raised from thesur- 35 face of the sheet.

The invention additionally contemplates the provision of a simple meansfor changing stencils; of a readily demountable means for rotativelysupporting the roller, and other elements 4D hereinafter described andmore particularly pointed out in the claims appended hereto.

In the accompanying drawing, forming a part hereof, Fig. 1 is a sideelevation of a mimeograph or reproducing device made in accordance with45 the invention; Fig. 2 is a sectional view through the same; Fig. 3 isa plan view of the device, with parts broken away and other parts insection to disclose construction; Fig. 4 is a View' of the rods whichhold the ends of the stencil on 50 the roller, and Fig. 5 is a sectionalview on the line 5-5 of Fig. 4, looking in the direction of the arrows.

With reference to the structure as disclosed in Fig. 1, I indicates thebody of the roller which 55 is of cylindrical formation and is offoraminous construction, so that the ink applied through the openings inthe roller will penetrate therethrough and saturate the padding 2secured around the peripheral surface of the roller.

Removably secured on top of the inked pad 2 and extending around ytheroller is the stencil sheet 3 which has reinforced or tabbed ends 4 thatare inserted through slots 5 formed in rods 6, each of which receivesone end of the stencil sheet. The rods 6 are held between ears 'I and 8,one of these ears being formed on and projecting from a spider 9 formingone end of the roller I, the other ear being provided on a similarspider I forming an opposite end of the roller. Screws II are threadedinto the ends of the rods 6 and by loosening these screws slightly, therods may be turned to enable the tab portions 4 of the stencil sheet 3to be Wound up on the rods for the requisite amount to hold the stencilsheet taut and smooth around the periphery of the roller. To preventinadvertent rotation of the rods 6 and the resultant loosening of thestencil sheet, springs I2, secured by rivets I3 to the roller, exertresilient pressure against the rods and hold the same in any setposition of adjustment.

vThe roller I is rotatively mounted upon an axle or spindle I4 whichv issecured in the arms of a yoke I on which is formed or otherwiseprovided, the handle I6. The spindle may be secured inthe yoke by meansof the set screw Il or by any other suitable fastening means.

Projecting laterally from the outer face of the spider 9 is a stud I8constituting a stop which limits rotative movement of the roller I in acounter-clockwise direction, as viewed in Fig. 2, by impingement againsta at spring I9, secured to and projecting from one of the arms of theyoke I5. Secured to the other arm of the yoke by the screw 20, is atorsional spring 2| which is curled around and secured to a hub 22formed on or attached to the spider I0.

From the foregoing, the operation of the device will be readilyunderstood. A stencil sheet 3 is prepared in the conventional way andsecured on the roller I by having its ends attached to the rods 6 whichare adjusted to draw the stencil sheet smoothly around the roller. 'I'heink, applied through the perforated roller saturates the padding 2 inthe conventional manner. The sheet, post-card or other element to beimprinted, shown at 23 in Fig. 1, is placed upon a flat surface and thedevice is held by the handle I6 while the roller, having its stop pin I8disposed uppermost, is held on the surface of the sheet 23 at one endthereof. The device is now moved in the direction of the arrow 24(Fig. 1) and the roller is caused to rotate in the direction of arrow 25because of its frictional contact with the face of the sheet beingimprinted. When the device has reached the position shown in dottedlines in Fig. 1 the roller has been rotated for nearly a completerevolution, or at least sufficiently to enable the imprint from thestencil to be applied to the sheet 23. While this is taking place, thetorsional spring 2| is being Wound up so that when the roller is raisedfrom the surface of the sheet 23 at the end of the printing stroke, thespring immediately rotates it in a direction opposite to that of arrow25, thus restoring it to its initial position, or that which it occupiedat the beginning of the printing stroke. 'I'he stop pin I8, impingingagainst the spring I9 limits the rotative movement of the roller underthe impulse of the torsional spring 2| and normally retains the rollerat the point of beginning.

It will be clear that with the small compact and portable mimeographdevice disclosed, small sheets, postcards, notices or the like may beone after another placed under the roller which is moved across thesheet and with a single stroke makes the imprint thereon. The stencilsmay be readily changed; the device may be easily inked and the devicespossess all of the facilities of the larger, more complicated and moreexpensive types of mimeographs.

I have herein shown the device in illustrative form, so that it Will beobvious that various modifications may be made and renements may beadded to the same. For example, the spring 2|, stop |8, spring |9 andother elements may be enclosed or housed in either casings provided onthe yoke or else on the ends of the roller. Other modications in thedevice may be readily made without departing from the spirit of theinvention.

What I claim is:

1. A device of the character described comprising, a mimeograph roller,a handle in which the roller is journalled and by which the roller ismanually held in frictional contact with a sheet and rotated across theface of the same, rods extending across the roller, a stencil sheetextending around the roller Iand having its ends attached to said rods,means for rotatively adjusting the rods to draw thevsheet smoothlyaround the roller, a. spring and a resilient stop consisting of a atspring for holding the roller in a predetermined position, said springpermitting rotative movement of the roller in one direction across thesheet to be imprinted and acting, when the roller is raised from thesurface of the sheet at the end of its stroke across the sheet, toreturn the roller to the initial position of said roller against theresilient stop prior to its movement across the sheet.

2. A device of the character described comprising, a mimeograph rollerprovided with end plates, an axle extending through said end plates, ayoke in which said axle is mounted, said yoke being provided With ahandle by which the roller is manually held in frictional contact with asheet and rotated across the face of the same, a stencil sheet extendingaround the roller, a torsional spring having one end attached to theyoke, said spring extending spirally around the axle and having itsother end attached to one of the end plates on the roller, a stop memberon one of said end plates, a resilient stop element on the yoke againstwhich the stop member is normally held by the spring, said resilientstop element consisting of a at spring having a free end projecting awayfrom the yoke, said spring permitting rotative movement of the roller inone direction across the sheet to be imprinted and acting when theroller is raised from the sheet to restore the roller to the positionwhere the stop member is located in resilient contact with the stopelement.

3. A device of the character described comprising, a mimeograph roller,a stencil removably held on said roller, a yoke in` which the roller isrotatably mounted, a handle on the yoke, a spring for resiliently urgingthe roller in one direction and holding it in. a predetermined position,a projection on the roller, a, resilient stop on the yoke against whichthe projection is normally held by the spring, said stop consisting of aleaf spring secured adjacent one end to the yoke and having a free endstanding away from the yoke and adjacent to which the projectioncontacts which resilient stop permits a limited amount of movement inthe same direction as the impulse of the spring whereby a manual eiortto rotate the roller across a sheet to be imprinted will be resilientlyresisted by the projection operative against the resilient stop.

FRED ERIKSON.

CII

